January 15, 2003

Matthew Yglesias writes about how everyone loves Orwell because everyone imagines themelves on the side of the angels. He also mentions Karl Popper, who has suffered much the same fate (insert smug exposition of how scientific theories must be falsifiable here). Matt suggests that

politics needs more recognition of human fallibility than it does thundering moral clarity, though I’m told that Sir Karl was not fond of practicing what he preached on this score.

He’s right about that. Popper was so intolerant of criticism that his big book on this topic was colloquially known as The Open Society By One of Its Enemies.